Wednesday, May 25, 2016

#I'llGoWithYou?

Students at Oregon State are getting serious about fighting injustice and oppression, which is why they've launched a campaign to provide transsexuals with a "companion."

Potential "companions" are identified by a special "#I'llGoWithYou" button, which can be worn on clothing or a backpack. PJ Harris explains the logic behind the special buttons:

“If someone is walking around with the button displayed on their backpack, a person who does not feel safe in gendered spaces, such as bathrooms, locker rooms, or even talking with a professor, can walk up to someone with a button and ask them to come with them.”

Well done, Oregon State, for tackling the greatest civil liberty and justice issue of our time.

I'm puzzled by the news item of the transgendered teacher who sued the school district for $60k, because the staff at that school wouldn't refer to that person as "they." I realize that "they" is colloquially used when "he and/or she" would be correct, when mentioning a single person. By demanding that the staff refer to that person as "they," isn't that person acknowledging a multiple personality disorder? (That's on top of the mental health studies being swept under the rug, that body/sexual dismorphia, thinking you were born the wrong sex or in the wrong body, is a mental illness itself, related to some likely childhood trauma, usually abuse and/or molestation.)

I'm sad for them, as they're rejecting the bodies God gave them. (I've read bits from the ancient fathers, and while they were speaking about cosmetics and crazy hair styles, it could certainly apply to cosmetic surgery and body alterations of today.) I'll grant that I'm not happy right now with my body and the Hodgkins lymphoma, but the treatments for that are out of medical necessity, not vanity. (I'm in the beginning of the radiation treatment part of the therapy, and so far so good.)

Although I rationally know that this is an infection which has spread throughout academia, I am embarrassed that my alma mater has fallen into this deranged and demented state...By my recollection, students in my day were well aware that there are only two sexes biologically speaking and their primary interest was in diligently exploring those differences...Or so I was told...not that I would have...Oh, never mind. I blame it on an infestation of old hippies that slipped across the border with California in the middle of the night in a beat up VW bus covered in neon green peace symbols.bobbookworm Oregon State '77

I never understood the "they" thing (and still don't). Isn't there already a perfectly good, non-gender specific pronoun out there that's ideal for these situations? I refer of course to "it".

If it was good enough for the cousin on the Addams Family, shouldn't it be good enough for all those non-male/non-female persons out there. I mean they've got a mascot and symbol of the movement locked in right there.

It starts off pretty innocently, Anonymous. One minute there's a harmless looking layabout strumming a guitar and eating tofu. Then you notice that some of your things are missing and the backyard's trashed. And the next day you wake up and discover they've ripped off your bathrooms and the state of Oregon.

I remember the guitar and tofu guy...he used to hang out on the sidewalk by the sub place just off campus...he was often made fun of for being a do nothing and not eating meat. I think he and his buddies from the next state South are running the state government now.bobbookworm